Prior to joining Abraaj Ömer Meserretçioğlu was an Associate in Investment Banking with Lehman Brothers in New York focusing on M&A and financing transactions covering a variety of financial institutions including regional banks, mortgage insurers and broker & dealers. Before Lehman he was a consultant with Bain & Company in Chicago and advised clients in retail, technology and manufacturing sectors.
Mr. Meserretçioğlu holds an MBA from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University.
Prior to joining Abraaj, Mr. Neilan was an Associate Director within the Principal Real Estate Finance team at The Royal Bank of Scotland. His responsibilities included origination and execution of real estate debt solutions for leading financial sponsors, property companies and corporations and balance sheet real estate equity investments. He was involved in over US$ 5 billion of financings, investments, restructurings and divestures covering the retail, leisure, office, hospitality, residential, healthcare and industrial sectors.
Mr Neilan began his career in 2002 at Allen & Overy in London and Singapore, where he trained and practised as a transactional lawyer advising multi-national corporations and financial institutions on financings, restructurings and mergers and acquisitions.
Mr. Neilan holds an MBA from INSEAD, Postgraduate Diploma in Law from Nottingham Law School and an LLB Law degree from University College London.
Prior to joining Abraaj in 2006, Mr. Zikar worked with companies in Middle East and Pakistan including the Middle East Broadcasting Group, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Central Depository Company and PWC in finance, audit and tax functions.
Mr. Zikar is a qualified chartered accountant and a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.
Ms. Guenez has a convening role at Abraaj through directing an active event management program with its stakeholders throughout the year. In addition, she drives key elements of ASSET by directing the Social Investing Program and representing the firm in a number of initiatives including the Abraaj Capital Mustaqbali Foundation, Injaz Al Arab, Endeavor Global and Ruwwad. She manages the engagement with Strategic Platforms such as the World Economic Forum, EMPEA, Art Dubai and the ‘Celebration of Entrepreneurship’.
Ms. Guenez is a graduate of the London School of Economics with First Class Honors in Business Management. She has been with the firm since its inception.
Mr. Moussa is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and has a Bachelors degree in commerce from Cairo University.
Mr. Aldakhil holds a Masters in Business Administration from The American Graduate School of International Management at Thunderbird University and a BA in Corporate Finance from American Colleges in Los Angeles, California.
Mr. Dalala was part of the team that oversaw the establishment and launch of the Cairo office for the Kantara Fund. Prior to joining Kantara, Mr. Dalala has had exposure to both the equity buy side, as a manager of a listed equity fund, and the sell side where he co-founded Intercap Partners in 2001 to provide investment banking services to mid-cap private market companies in Canada. This was followed in 2006 by the establishment of a joint venture to provide similar services to companies in the Middle East with operations in Egypt and the UAE. As a Partner and Head of Investment Banking with these firms, he managed a group of bankers and led and executed several transactions in the resource industries, food and beverage, manufacturing and technology.
Prior to his involvement in the financial services industry, Mr. Dalala spent 12+ years as an industry professional where his track record includes corporate line management experience with two multinationals in the industrial field, strategic planning with a major oil company, and a founder and partner in three new business ventures.
Mr. Dalala holds an MBA in Finance from McGill University and a BSc. degree in Chemical Engineering (with honors) from Cairo University. He is a Chartered Business Valuator with professional accreditation to practice in Canada and the United States
Mr. Goucha has served as an Investment Director with the Kantara Fund since 2007. In this capacity, Mr. Goucha closed two deals in the pharmaceutical sector: Opalia pharma, a fast growing generic drugs maker with best in class production facility and growing market share in the Tunisian market, and Unimed Pharma, a generics maker specialized in sterile forms such as injectables and eye drops. Unimed Pharma is a major player in the sterile products segment in North Africa.
Prior to working with Kantara, Mr. Goucha was the Head of the MENA coverage team at NATEXIS PRAMEX INTERNATIONAL, a subsidiary of Groupe Natexis Banques Populaires between 2002 and 2007. Mr. Goucha also worked in sales for PRUDENTIAL BACHE SECURITIES between May 1997 and December 1998.
Mr. Goucha holds a Masters Degree in Economics and International Finance from the University of Paris Dauphine and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Commerciales at Carthage, Tunisia.
Mr. Guennoun joined Kantara in 2005 and is responsible for sourcing and executing deals in Morocco. Previously, he worked in the M&A department of Société Générale in Paris in 2000 and was involved in various deals, mainly in the automobile, media and retail sectors. Mr. Guennoun was in charge of valuation, modeling, processes and due diligence management as well as relationships with clients and other advisors. He has specialized in LBO deals since 2003 and advised a number of large French financial sponsors.
Mr. Guennoun holds a Master of Science degree in Finance from Paris Dauphine University in France.
Elie Habib is Lebanon Country Manager of Riyada Enterprise Development (RED), a member of the Abraaj Group. He established and leads an experienced team targeting investments in small and medium enterprises with significant growth potential, proven products or services and the capacity to expand regionally.
Prior to joining RED in April 2010, Mr. Habib consulted with numerous startups in the Silicon Valley and most recently acted as an executive consultant at Cradlepoint, a leader in 3G/4G mobile connectivity solutions located in the US. In August 2006, Mr. Habib co-founded a VC-funded startup called Vusion in Silicon Valley and served as its CEO and President. Vusion was an innovator in the domain of HD video streaming over the internet.
From 2001 to 2006, Mr. Habib held several senior positions within Nokia most recently acting as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Security and Mobile Connectivity (Silicon Valley) business unit. Mr. Habib has also held executive positions at Ramp Networks, a Silicon Valley SMB networking company that achieved IPO and was acquired by Nokia in 2001. Earlier in his career, he held executive positions at Bay Networks (acquired by Nortel Networks). Mr. Habib co-founded and served as President of Lebnet (1999-2010), the premier network of Lebanese and Lebanese high-tech professionals in the Silicon Valley and San Francisco Area. He is currently a board member of Cradlepoint, US.
Mr. Habib holds a M.S. in Computer Science from France and the US, and completed the Nokia Executive Progam and the Stanford Executive Program. In Lebanon he is involved with Endeavor as a Venture Corps advisor, MIT Forum, and has been on numerous panels and speakers engagements with the World Bank, IEEE, Berytech, GEW, IDAL and many others.
At Kantara, Mr. Hamadouche was focused on the North African market where he executed the Gallus Group transaction in the agribusiness sector and managed related portfolio companies. Prior to joining Kantara, Mr. Hamadouche worked for Swicorp private equity funds, where he participated in executing different transactions across the MENA region in the energy, financial services, aviation and transportation sectors, as well as raising debt and evaluating other build-up and LBO investment opportunities.
Mr. Hamadouche started his private equity career within Banexi Capital Partners, a BNP Paribas SME private equity arm and a leading French private equity firm focused on mid cap French companies, where he participated in evaluating investment opportunities, execution and portfolio management efforts.
Mr. Hamadouche holds an engineering degree, Master of Science in Telecommunications from the Paris High Institute of Electronics (ISEP) and a Master of Science in Financial Engineering and Corporate Finance from the E.M. Lyon Business School in France.
Raza Hasnani joined Abraaj in 2006 and has been involved in all aspects of the investment process from sourcing and execution to post-acquisition value-creation. He has 15 years of private equity and corporate finance experience in the US, Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Previously, he was with Exxon Mobil Corporation in Dallas and Houston where he led financing activities for upstream and downstream projects. Mr. Hasnani has also worked in the investment banking division of Credit Suisse First Boston in Los Angeles. He started his career in 1994 at Deloitte in Philadelphia.
Mr. Hasnani holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania. He also holds CPA and CA qualifications.
Hala Hobeiche joined Abraaj in 2005 and is a member of the investment management team, involved in all aspects of the transaction process including structuring, execution, post acquisition implementation and monitoring of portfolio companies. She has completed several transactions at Abraaj including SMG, GEMS, MSF and EFC. She has also been heavily involved in the management of several portfolio companies including JorAMCo and OCI.
Prior to joining Abraaj, Ms Hobeiche was part of the investment team at the Middle East Capital Group (MECG), a leading investment and merchant bank in Lebanon. She started her career in Bank Audi, Beirut in 2000 where she spent three years as an account manager in the bank's main branch.
Ms Hobeiche holds a Masters Degree in Economics from the American University of Beirut. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Economics from Université Saint-Joseph.
Prior to joining Riyada Enterprise Development, Mr. Kabrit was a Principal and Partner with Siraj Capital, where he focused on the UAE, KSA, and Lebanese markets and led 4 SME investments in the telecom, retail, IT, and F&B space. Mr. Kabrit sat on the board for each of the 4 SME investments.
Prior to moving into Private Equity, Mr. Kabrit was with Deutsche Bank's Merger and Acquisitions team based out of London and then Dubai. As part of Deutsche Bank's Merger and Acquisitions team, Mr. Kabrit executed over US$ 2bn worth of M&A deals and advised on the largest MENA IPO to date.
Additionally, Mr. Kabrit spent almost 4 years as a strategy consultant with Booz and Co. principally in Beirut. At Booz and Co., he focused on the telecom, healthcare, and industrial sectors and worked on projects all over the MENA region.
Mr. Kabrit holds an MBA from INSEAD, an MSc in Finance and Economics (with merit) from the London School of Economics, a BA in Economics (with distinction) and a BSc in Biology from the American University of Beirut. He is also a CFA level 2 candidate.
He is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan.
Ovais is Senior Vice President within the Portfolio Management and Operations Group (PMOG). He has specific responsibility for creating “go-to-market”, pricing and digital capabilities across the large cap and SMC portfolios. Whilst at Abraaj, Ovais has helped define the Firm’s ESG focus, specifically with regards to the core vision Abraaj’s partner company sustainable programming.
In 2010, he led the project team that created and launched Wamda.com, the region’s leading early and mid-stage entrepreneurship content and community portal and was also part of the core team that executed the Celebration of Entrepreneurship live event.
From 2008 to 2010, he served as Chief Marketing & Communications Officer (CMCO) at Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), an Abraaj Capital partner company and one of the region’s largest vertically-integrated monopoly electricity utilities. As a member of KESC’s senior management team, Ovais was responsible for the stakeholder alignment component of the Value Creation Plan: including its sustainable and CSR programming, public affairs programming, brand repositioning, internal communications, with a US$30 million deployment budget over 2009-2012. That case is a Harvard Business School (HBS) and London Business School (LBS) MBA class case study.
He graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with a BSc (Econ) degree, specializing in International Trade and Development. After graduation, he spent nearly five years with AMV•BBDO, Britain’s market-leading marketing services group (part of the Omnicom Group).
He left in 1996 to join the Cupola Group in Dubai, where he eventually served as Director – Marketing. He returned to the UK in 2000 and was with Ogilvy (part of the WPP plc group) until 2003, where he served as a Group Director. In 2004, he founded Gloria, a leading limited-edition “big-book” publisher in London, focused on the creative, design and photography worlds.
Ovais serves on the Middle East North Africa (MENA) Advisory Board of the worldwide Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council®.
Prior to joining Abraaj, Ms Nemr was Head of Business Line in the Corporate Department at Banque Libano Francaise in Lebanon, where she was responsible for managing key corporate accounts in the construction and telecommunication sectors with a focus on trade. Furthermore, she led a team of professionals responsible for a portfolio of corporate clients active in trade and general distribution in this role.
Ms Nemr started her career at Carosserie Abillama, where she was responsible for purchasing and cost management. Prior to this, she worked as an Associate with the Merger and Acquisition team at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Cleveland, USA.
Ms Nemr holds an MBA with honors from Ohio University, USA and a Masters degree in Industrial Management from the Saint Joseph University, Lebanon. She received her Bachelors in Business Administration from Saint Joseph University, Lebanon and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the honor Society for High Scholastic Achievement.
